v6.2

Before we get to the meat of things, let's have a moment of silence for the passing of the old Mordekaiser vs. Master Yi art we stole from somewhere I can't remember.

...

And now check out that awesome new art we stole from the 2016 season update! You can grab it as a wallpaper here, which is nice.

Getting into the mix, 6.1 and 6.2 are our 'preseason followup' patches, and we've been pretty happy with how things are trending. We're seeing some cool diversity picks in competitive games (little suspicious of that Lissandra support), a lot of major outliers are calming down (although Graves and a few others may need to be checked), and the season's start is upon us.

In light of the above, 6.2's very straightforward. The most exciting things I'd want to highlight (aside from the release of Jhin, the Shen update, and the Nunu buffs) are very 'under-the-hood' with the ward debris and wall collision detection changes. The wall collision changes are pretty important but self-explanatory, so go read the note. On the point of ward debris: we still firmly believe that there needs to be some way to learn one of the most critical (and often game-winning) systems in League of Legends, so shiny little ghost-wards is where we're at. Clarity.

And that's 6.2 wrapped up! We wish you the best of luck in your placement matches. If you're struggling, try finding some like-minded friends to rank up with - just make sure they don't owe you money or anything because if you start fighting over who threw the game at the 55 minute mark, feelings get hurt and Tyler will never pay you that $20 he owes unless you call him out publicly in the patch notes. FOR SHAME.

Dr. MundoLowering Mundo's early power. E's damage is now lower until the last rank, and Mundo's R starts at a higher cooldown before scaling down.

What happens when a late game monster also gets to dominate early? Mundo. Our last round of nerfs in 5.24 don't appear to have bruised Mundo's pain train, so a firmer collar in 6.2 means he'll have to work harder for his end game... strength.

E - Masochism

MINIMUM BONUS ATTACK DAMAGE : [40/55/70/85/100]⇒ 20/40/60/80/100

MUNDO SAVANT : Bonus attack damage still scales by +1% per 1% of Mundo's missing health (so if a dead Mundo (100% missing health) could use Masochism, he'd still gain +100% of Masochism's bonus AD, now totalling 40/80/120/160/200). This ratio is unchanged, we're just letting you know because math is hard for Mundo. Particularly dead Mundo.

With Runic Echoes, Elise has just the tool she needs to climb the waterspout of power rankings, and there ain't no rain to wash her out.
Nihilistic nursery rhymes aside, Elise is doing well and has a decent strategic identity (early power jungler with high utility and map presence), so we're just slowing her spider roll.

On release, Duelist's Dance would alternate on spawn location between either the two 'front' vitals (facing blue side) or the two 'back' vitals (the ones facing red side). This was to get some elements of play and mastery in the mix, as well as preventing pure randomness from messing with either Fiora or her opponent. At some point, however, that logic exploded and went to randomness.

We're very aware that Gangplank has a recurring guest slot on the patch notes, but he continues to be one of our highest performing champions across quite a few power metrics. To be fair, however, with each change we've gone medium to light, as we know how fickle champion viability can be in both perception and objective power. Today we're chipping down Cannon Barrage's global presence to keep it in line with other global ultimates, which should also force Gangplank to value his ult timing more carefully.

We're finding a happy medium here for Kha'Zix (and Rengar) in their ability to frontload damage as they come hurtling through the air to cuddle with the backline. This probably won't be the end of our Kha'Zix conversation, but we're currently being very, very careful with assassin tuning.

W - Void Spike

NEW BUFFERING BUGS : Can now be 'buffered' mid-jump so that Kha'Zix can cast it slightly before landing

DATA QUEUE : If Kha'Zix attempts to cast both Void Spikes and Void Assault while mid-air, he'll buffer only the last one he attempted to cast (not both, that would be too much)

R - Void Assault

NEW BUFFERING BUGS : Can now be 'buffered' mid-jump so that Kha'Zix can cast it slightly before landing

DATA QUEUE : If Kha'Zix attempts to cast both Void Spikes and Void Assault while mid-air, he'll buffer only the last one he attempted to cast (not both, that would be too much)

NunuE is now more spammable in late game team fights, with a lower cooldown and lower mana costs (at the tradeoff of less damage).

Giving the world's most annoying little boy (and his yeti, Willump (we sincerely hope you knew that)) something more to do in late game team fights. There's potential this makes lane Nunu come back with a vengeance, and while we're not certain what that means for the median happiness score of a game of League of Legends, we can at least apologize now.

... Sorry for the yeti.

That said, we're looking forward to more gameplay montages with great music.

PoppySmall bugfixes to clear up Poppy's interactions with her passive, as well as a quality-of-life tweak for Q.

Some small bugfixes for Poppy to keep on truckin'. We wanted to stay roughly power neutral here.

Passive - Iron Ambassador

IT'S NOT A BOOMERANG : If target dies before the shield reaches it, the shield will not return.

RUBBER ZOMBIES : The shield will now return to Poppy when it kills a champion with a zombie passive (Kog'Maw, Karthus, etc.)

BYE-BYE BULWARK : When the shield is on the ground, it will start its outro animation earlier so Poppy knows when it's time to say goodbye (actual game time duration unchanged)

Q - Hammer Shock

COMBO BREAKER : We've improved the E-Q combo from 6.1. Hammer Shock will now only auto-aim toward your target if your mouse cursor has not moved significantly after casting Heroic Charge.

RengarQ's burst damage is down, but the damage buff is higher. Bola Strike now has a cast time even if Rengar is casting it mid-air. R's Exclamation Point of Death now gives a longer range warning. You'll probably still die.

Every patch has one of those changelists where you crack your neck and take a deep breath (maybe stretch a bit) before diving into... context land.

What we have is a hunter-predator with seriously awesome hair who self-identifies with some seriously painful (strategic) one-shotting power. So what that means is while we're setting the narrative for these Rengar changes, we will probably have future ones to come. And more context.

The story here: we're looking to do two things lightly - mainly because they directly overlap with Rengar's current strategic niche. 1.) We want to give players a slightly larger window of opportunity to react (see: R change). 2.) We want to at least slow Rengar's ability to one-shot someone with his uncounterable burst combo (see: E + Q changes). As to how these work in siphoning out kitty frustration remains to be seen, but it's where we're going to start.

Also, buy pink wards. This tip has little to do with Rengar, it's just good habits.General

KITTY CONSISTENCY : When Rengar jumps from stealth or the brush, he now lands very slightly short of the target. Like 1/16th of a Teemo short. This will prevent overzealous Rengars who occasionally jump right on top of their target, only to throw their Bola past them.

0.25 SECONDS TO LIVE : Bola Strike now has a cast time (0.25 seconds) when Rengar casts it while mid-air

HAIL MARY : Rengar will now properly throw his Bola Strike if he tried to do it mid-air but the targeting cursor was out of range

R - Thrill of the Hunt

EXCLAMATION MARK RANGE : [1250]⇒ 1450

Tahm KenchPassive stack duration down, and fixed a bug with Devour refunding cooldown and mana cost even if an opponent shields it.

Not trying to bench the Kench, but at least reduce some frustration when he's rolling around the court, styling on the opposition. That stack duration change is to force Tahm to be more active in his aggression if he wants to be chain-chomping.

Items

Making the Rift a less spooky place, one patch at a time. The short context here is we initially dumped all of our investigation eggs into the Frost Queen's Claim basket, but have since expanded to the two item cost reductions below. Raising the cooldown, however, encourages more careful use of the active rather than "yes."

ACTIVE COOLDOWN : [60 seconds]⇒ 90 seconds

SPOOKY SPRINTING : Ghosts no longer move slightly faster when they can see their target.

Collateral buffs from our Frost Queen's Claim investigations. Specifically, it seems like we were overvaluing what those unique passives were doing for the item. Having cheaper alternatives should help with build diversity.

Collateral buffs from our Frost Queen's Claim investigations. Specifically, it seems like we were overvaluing what those unique passives were doing for the item. Having cheaper alternatives should help with build diversity.

COMBINE COST : [565 gold]⇒ 465 gold

TOTAL COST : [2800 gold]⇒ 2700 gold

The Dark SealCheaper cost so you can start with a refillable potion or three health potions.

The Dark Seal was designed to be a 'limited window of power' fantasy, so we're going a little harder on that. Now the dream start is a Dark Seal + Refillable Potion, where you get first blood for some stacks and an early Corrupting Potion (and that feel-good item synergy), play arrogantly, lose all of your stacks on a failed gank, stubbornly refuse to sell your Dark Seal (even though it's like selling a Doran's Ring), double down on Mejai's, and never get past 5 stacks.

I'm not projecting, I swear.

COST : [400 gold]⇒ 350 gold

SOULS AIN'T CHEAP : The total price of Mejai's Soulstealer is unchanged

We still like the 'greedy' premise of Cull, so we're dialing it up a bit

ATTACK DAMAGE : [5]⇒ 7

FINAL PAYOUT : [300 gold]⇒ 350 gold

Rapid FirecannonJust a small bugfix where attack-moving with champions wouldn't take Rapid Firecannon's range extension into account, so they'd run up to normal range and waste it on an empowered attack.

AUTO AUTO SPACING : Fixed a bug where champions would run into 'normal' attack range, even when they had an empowered attack range from Rapid Firecannon

Systems

Wall Collision DetectionFlashing over walls or placing wards over walls is now more logical and understandable. If you're reading this far, you might as well read the context because this thing's confusing, man.

This is a change that has some implications (most good) in terms of how you flash over walls or place wards over walls, so we're going to be transparent about what happened. Before this change: when someone tries to flash over or place a ward over a wall, the game tries to place you at the spot you want to go. If it can't, it starts spiraling out (don't ask why it was a spiral) before arriving at a concrete location. It then plops you at that location. Technically this is consistent, because the spiral is always the same so if you know the right spots you'll always end up where you want - it's just a matter of memorizing where. After this change: same thing, except if you can't find a home in the wall, the system checks for the closest available spot and puts you there. Period.

What this means: flashing over and placing wards over walls should be far more intuitive as to what will 'work' or not work. If something used to work and it no longer works, that's because it wasn't supposed to in the first place (insufficient range) but the system was cheating it. For those situations, you'll need to re-learn certain 'ways' of warding over walls to get consistency, but it should make a lot more sense.

YOU'RE WELCOME SCARRA : Placing wards over walls or flashing over walls is now more logical and precisely calculated. Read the context, this patch note isn't going to make sense.

Masteries

AssassinMore assassin, less "super good for junglers."

Going a little harder on that 'champion isolation' mechanic that Assassin was meant to promise, rather than it being a very strong mastery pick for junglers. Oh dear.

REMOVED ALONE IN THE JUNGLE : Increased damage is exclusive against champions

DAMAGE BONUS : [+1.5%]⇒ +2%

Thunderlord's DecreeCooldown up at lower levels, and down at later levels. The grace period between hits has gone down, so you'll need to get three hits off faster to proc it.

Thunderlord's Decree being our current benchmark of satisfaction and power for keystone masteries remains the same, but that doesn't mean we can't touch it! Think of it more as keeping Thunderlord's tête-à-tête with other masteries, and so we're adjusting both sides accordingly. Right now, we're siphoning a little of Thunderlord's early dominance because it's just straight crowding out other choices. What this does mean, however, is we can buff it's late game presence with a little more excitement.

Also, that stack decay change is probably more important for lane aggression, as it means you'll need to really commit if you want your purple lightning.

COOLDOWN : [20 seconds]⇒ 25 - 15 seconds (based on level)

STACK DECAY PERIOD : [5 seconds]⇒ 3 seconds

Windspeaker's BlessingTooltip correction. Windspeaker's does boost self-heals and shields, just not the bonus AR/MR.

Just a tooltip correction. For those of you wondering why we don't just make Windspeaker's provide the same AR/MR bonuses for self-heals and ally heals (or shields), the answer is Mundo. And Warwick. And Singed. And Garen. And so on.
Ward Debris

ALSO ALISTAR : Tooltip has been updated to reflect that, for self-heals and self-shields, Windspeaker's Blessing increases their potential but does not provide bonus magic resistance and armor

Trinkets & Vision

Ward DebrisWard Debris now visually changes based on how long it's been debris.

One major point of feedback we've gotten on ward debris is just how useless the information is. Basically, because these things stick around for so long, you end up with a lot of 'junk' data that doesn't do much for learning habits.

This change is to streamline things. By showing clear, readable 'phases' in ward debris life, you should understand more about your enemy's vision strategy and how it evolves over the course of time. This might not sound like a very exciting feature, but it totally is. We're excited. Please be excited.

DEBRIS DURATION! : [300]⇒ 240 seconds

NEW DEBRIS VISUALS! : Ward Debris now:

Brightly glows in the first 10% of its lifespan!

Stops emitting flames after 30% of its lifespan has passed!

Particle visibly changes and debris shrinks after 60% of its lifespan has passed!

For those times when your team peppers the map with blue wards and you're trying to figure out your regular ward count at a glance but get really confused because there's 20 of them sitting in your jungle.

We got your back.

NEW MINIMAP WARD ICON : Is now smaller and more lightly tinted than a regular ward icon

NEW DYNAMIC CURSOR COLOR : Farsight Totem now shares similar behavior with other warding actives. Your targeting cursor will now turn green when over brush and red when in terrain.

Read what's on the box. We were actually inspired by Jhin when he was trying to self-spot for his Curtain Call (R) in playtests, but then just stopped shooting and got sad. Unfortunately in actual execution we flipped this on its head, so it was fixed for all champions except Jhin (and Xerath). We'll be getting to those two as soon as we can.

BEAUTIFUL VISION : Activating a trinket will no longer break channels - except in the case of Jhin and Xerath, which we will fix as soon as we can.

Alternative Maps

Howling Abyss#cleannumbers

We wanted to introduce #cleannumbers to the health relic spawns on The Howling Abyss and ended up in neutral positivity because of Twisted Treeline. Long story short, one's a bug, the other's intended.

HEALTH RELIC SPAWN : [3:10]⇒ 3:00 (this is intended)

Twisted Treeline#whoops

Spillover. We'll fix this as soon as possible.

HEALTH RELIC SPAWN : [3:00]⇒ 2:50 (this is a bug and will be fixed as soon as possible)

New Champ Select

As promised when we launched New Champ Select, we've been working to improve the system based on our initial live data. Before we proceed, it's worth noting that our downtime wasn't caused by bugs in New Champ Select itself (hence the relatively low number of fixes listed here). Rather, the huge influx of traffic from both New Champ Select's launch and the start of the 2016 ranked season caused New Champ Select's underlying systems to fall over.

Now that we've reinforced these systems and New Champ Select is back online, here's what's new:

Interface ImprovementsAdding a few tools back into New Champ Select which weren't quite ready to go when we launched.

POOL PARTY COMP : Skins are now purchasable in New Champ Select

LITERALLY BLUCIAN : Chromas can now be selected in New Champ Select

YOU GOTTA WARD, THOUGH : Ward skins can now be selected in New Champ Select

Matchmaking ImprovementsThese changes were made pretty quickly following the initial release of New Champ Select. We're just making sure you know about them.

MATCHMAKING BALANCE : Improved at all skill levels

QUEUE TIMES : Reduced at the top end of the MMR spectrum

PREMADE EQUALITY : 5-man premades are now matched up against other 5-man premades 98% of the time

Bugfixes

Fixed a bug where Sweeping Lens's animation would play when walking into brush the enemy team swept earlier in the match

Fixed a bug where Warlord's Bloodlust's attack speed buff was lasting one second less than intended

Fixed a bug where Hecarim's E - Devastating Charge, R - Onslaught of Shadows combo wasn't working properly. Hecarim can now cast E before R and will not lose the E buff

Similar to Ryze, Cassiopeia now retains her previous movement or attack command after E - Twin Fang's cast finishes

Vel'Koz's R - Lifeform Disintegration Ray no longer does a variety of strange things if cast as Vel'Koz last-hits a target

Fixed a bug where Malphite's R - Unstoppable Force would sometimes knock up and damage units at the start position instead of end position when interacting with displacement spells like Trundle's E - Pillar of Ice

Fixed a bug where displacement effects would not displace Zac during E - Elastic Slingshot's travel time

Fixed a bug where leveling up caused Graves's E - Quick Draw's armor and magic resistance bonus to become inconsistent until refreshed

Fixed the vision-granting aspects of Malzahar's Q - Call of the Void. Vision is now properly granted along the entire path and enemies hit on the edge of their hitboxes are now properly revealed.

Tools

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